Word: prothro
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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SITUATION: the 1967 season opener against Tennessee. Twice Beban has rallied his team from deficits of 0-7 and 3-13. Now, with 4 min. left, U.C.L.A. again trails, 13-16. The Bruins have the ball, fourth and two on the Tennessee 27, and Coach Tommy Prothro calls Beban to the sideline. "I want you," he says, "to run one more great play." Gary nods. Next play, he tucks the ball under his arm, wriggles to his right, cuts back, outruns five Tennessee linemen, breaks two tackles in the secondary, and scampers into the end zone to give U.C.L.A...
...running for another 1,142 yds., scoring 30 touchdowns. Just two weeks ago, he tallied the winning TD as the No. 3-ranked Bruins squeaked past Penn State 17-15 for their fourth straight victory of 1967. Such heart-stopping heroics have become so commonplace that Coach Prothro admits to a certain ennui: "I've gotten to where I expect so much from Gary that he doesn't impress me any more...
...roster of the unimpressed includes Beban himself, who for anonymity's sake refuses to wear his letterman's jacket on campus. It does not, of course, include the pros. "I don't know anything about professional football," insists Coach Prothro, "and what's more, I don't care to know anything. But do they run the ball? Do they throw it? If they do, Beban should be just the sort of player they are looking...
...necessary. "If you can't pass, you can't win," says Southern Cal Coach John McKay. But mostly they throw because they know how to throw-and catch-better than anybody ever did before. "Look, I don't want to disparage anybody," says U.C.L.A. Coach Tommy Prothro. "But you list all the great passing combinations in chronological order, and it's almost certain that each one was better than the one that went before. Today's passing game is more refined...
Starting at Four. It ought to be, considering how much effort goes into it. At Tennessee, Coach Doug Dickey allots 60% of his practice time to passing drills, only 40% to running-although passing accounts for only 40% of the Volunteers' offense. U.C.L.A.'s Prothro and Notre Dame's Parseghian both insist that their quarterbacks throw for at least half an hour every day, in season and out. The quarterbacks rarely have to be reminded. There's no trick to learning how to pass, says John Huarte, star of Parseghian's 1964 Notre Dame team...